1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to sleep monitoring. Particularly, the invention relates to a method for the monitoring of sleep using an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays mobile phones and palmtop computers, that is, mobile terminals or mobile communication devices are increasingly being used instead of alarm clocks. The alarm works simply by waking up the user at a specified time, which many users find unpleasant. However, present day mobile terminals are equipped with computation power and peripheral device interfacing capabilities that would permit much more sophisticated wakeup and sleep control.
There is also a recent trend to connect household appliances to a local area network together with a personal computer in order to enable a centralized and automatic control of household appliances. The personal computer at home may further be controlled with a mobile terminal via an Internet connection.
Further, there exist available comfortable and unnoticeable sensor devices for the monitoring of sleep. Such sensor devices may be incorporated to a mattress or they may be worn.
Sleep consists of several phases with different depths. There is a delta-phase in which the sleeper is oblivious to normal disturbances. The delta-phase is followed by a Rapid Eye Movements (REM) phase where most dreaming takes place. Sleeper also moves rapidly during the REM sleep. Awakening is easier in the REM phase than in the delta-phase.
It would be beneficial to be able to have a sleep monitoring and wakeup system, which avoids the waking of the sleeper during a period of deep sleep. It would also be beneficial to be able to control household appliances based on the anticipated actual waking time of the sleeper.